Easy-to-use tea bags

ABSTRACT

The easy-to-use tea bag is tubular and pliable, easily fits into a standard small mouth bottle and has two ends, a tubular body, two closures and an inner cavity. The tubular body is formed between the ends. The closures are formed respectively at the ends, and each closure has a strength part. The inner cavity is formed between the two ends and holds tealeaves or other material for steeping. The easy-to-use tea bag being tubular and pliable makes inserting and removing the easy-to-use tea bag into and from a bottle easy.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a tea bag, especially to an easy-to-use tea bag for use in a cramped neck of a bottle.

2. Description of the Prior Arts

Drinking tea has been a feature of traditional Chinese culture for centuries. Some studies have found that tea polyphenol inhibits fatty acid synthetic enzyme in cells, and reduces cells and lipid proliferation, which may help people lose weight, and may be used in the prevention and treatment of cancer. Therefore, drinking tea indeed is good for health. However, tannic acid in tealeaves is released and makes tea steeped in boiling water bitter tasting. Therefore, steeping tealeaves in cool water reduces the amount of tannic acid released and improves the flavor of tea. Furthermore, the tealeaves release epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and caffeine that both cause the tea bitter. The tealeaves in the cool water for 24 hours release less EGCG and caffeine than the tealeaves in the boil water for 5 minutes. The tealeaves in the cool water still release tannic acid, catechin, epicatechin and epigallocatechin that are all good for health.

A traditional technique of steeping tea called “sun tea” comprises simply placing tealeaves in a bottle or jar of cool water to steep tea. The sun tea are more and more popular because the cool water is easily get and because of the less bitter and the good for health. However, tea particles tend to be suspended in the tea. For this reason, tea bags are most often used to steep tea. The traditional tea bags are small enough to put into a cramped neck of a bottle. However, when the traditional tea bags absorb water, the traditional tea bags are expanded and are too large to be pulled out of the cramped neck of the bottle.

To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides an easy-to-use tea bag to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The main objective of the present invention is to provide an easy-to-use tea bag that is pliable and can be easily put into and removed from a cramped neck of a bottle.

The easy-to-use tea bag in accordance with the present invention is tubular and pliable, easily fits into a standard small mouth bottle and has two ends, a tubular body, two closures and an inner cavity.

The tubular body is formed between the ends. The closures are formed respectively at the ends, and each closure has a strength part. The inner cavity is formed between the two ends and holds tealeaves or other material for steeping. The easy-to-use tea bag being tubular and pliable makes inserting and removing the easy-to-use tea bag into and from a bottle easy.

To achieve the main objective, three conditions must be satisfied. First, the tea bag needs to have enough cavities to contain the expanded tealeaves and then the tea is effectively made. Second, the outer diameter of the expanded tea bag has to be smaller than the inner diameter of the neck of the bottle and then the expanded tea bag can be pulled out of the bottle easily. At last, width of the closure of the tea bag has to be larger than the inner diameter of the neck of the bottle to keep the tea bag from slipping out of the bottle when drinking.

Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an easy-to-use tea bag in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a front view of the easy-to-use tea bag in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged side view of part of the easy-to-use tea bag in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an operational front view of the easy-to-use tea bag in FIG. 1 and a bottle in cross section;

FIG. 5 is an operational front view of the easy-to-use tea bag in FIG. 1 in the bottle in FIG. 4 with the bottle upside-down; and

FIG. 6 is an operational front view of the easy-to-use tea bag in FIG. 1 being removed from the bottle in FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

With reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 4, an easy-to-use tea bag (10) in accordance with the present invention is pliable and tubular, is paper, fabric or non-woven, easily fits into a standard small mouth bottle (20) having a neck (21) with a inner diameter of 2.0˜2.2 cm and has an outer diameter, two ends (11), a tubular body (12), two closures (13) and an inner cavity.

The outer diameter of the easy-to-use tea bag expands to 1.6˜2.2 cm after being dipped in water and is smaller than the inner diameter of the neck (21).

The tubular body (12) is formed between the ends (11), is somewhat flattened, holds tealeaves or other mixed materials such as herbs for steeping beverages and has a width. The width is 2.5˜3.4 cm and is larger than the inner diameter of the neck.

The closures (13) are formed respectively at the ends (11) and hold the tealeaves or other mixed materials such as herbs in the tubular body (12), and each closure (13) has a length, a width, a strengthen part (131) and two edges. The length is measured longitudinally relative to the tubular body (12) and is 1 cm. The width is measured transversely relative to the tubular body (12) and is the same as the width of the tubular body (12). With further reference to FIGS. 3 and 5, the strengthen parts (131) are formed on the closures (13) and can be multiple creases to hold the closures (13) closed and keep the easy-to-use tea bag (10) in the bottle (20) when the bottle (20) is upside down and tea is poured from the bottle (20). With further reference to FIG. 6, the edges of the closure (13) are easily bent to remove the easy-to-use tea bag (10) from the neck (21) of the bottle (20).

The inner cavity of the easy-to-use tea bag (10) is formed between the two closures (13) and holds the tealeaves or other mixed materials such as herbs.

Therefore, the easy-to-use tea bag (10) as described is very easy to insert into and remove from a standard small neck bottle (20) and keep tea particles from being suspended in steeped tea.

Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and features of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only. Changes may be made in the details, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed. 

1. An easy-to-use tea bag being pliable and tubular and having an outer diameter, two ends; a tubular body being formed between the ends and having a width; two closures being formed respectively at the ends, and each closure having a length being measured longitudinally relative to the tubular body; a width being measured transversely relative to the tubular body and being the same as the width of the tubular body; and two edges; and an inner cavity being formed between the two closures.
 2. The easy-to-use tea bag as claimed in claim 1, wherein each closure has a strengthen part formed on the closure.
 3. The easy-to-use tea bag as claimed in claim 2, wherein the width of the tubular body is 2.5˜3.4 cm; and the length of each closure is 1 cm.
 4. The easy-to-use tea bag as claimed in claim 2, wherein the easy-to-use tea bag's outer diameter expands to 1.6˜2.2 cm after being dipped in water.
 5. The easy-to-use tea bag as claimed in claim 2, the strengthen parts are multiple creases to hold the closure closed.
 6. The easy-to-use tea bag as claimed in claim 2, wherein the easy-to-use tea bag is paper.
 7. The easy-to-use tea bag as claimed in claim 2, wherein the easy-to-use tea bag is fabric.
 8. The easy-to-use tea bag as claimed in claim 2, wherein the easy-to-use tea bag is non-woven. 